James 1:27 says, “Religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” God desires for orphans of all nations to be loved, cared for, and adopted into Christian families-ultimately so they can become saved, and be adopted into His eternal family through Jesus Christ!

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Learning About Lunar New Year (Feb. 2,3,4)

Korean New Year, commonly known as Seolnan, is the first day of the lunar calendar. It is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays. The Korean New Year holidays last three days,
and is considered a more important holiday than the solar New Year's Day.

Korean New Year is typically a family-oriented holiday. The three-day holiday is used by many to return to their home towns to visit their parents and other relatives where they perform the ancestral ritual known as charye (차례). Many Koreans dress up in their hanboks. Tteokgik (떡국) (soup with rice cakes) is commonly served.

Many traditional games are associated with the Korean New Year. The traditional family board game Yutnori(윷놀이) is still a popular pastime. Traditionally men and boys would fly kites and play jegi chagi (제기차기), a game in which a light object is wrapped in paper or cloth, and then kicked in a footbag like manner. Korean women and girls would have traditionally played neolttigi (널뛰기), a game of jumping on a seesaw (시소), while children spun paengi (팽이).

2011 brings the Year of the Rabbit! People wish each other prosperity and luck. 새해 복 많이 받으세요 (saehae bok man-hi ba-deu saeyo)-Happy New Year!

Well, since I just learned that many Koreans dress up in their hanboks for the holiday... I thought I would let Isaiah put his on too!

So the last time he put his hanbok on was the weekend after his 2nd birthday (in December) and he didn't seem to mind wearing it. However, only a couple months into being two and this time when I put it on he pulled at the vest and said "no and all done". Perhaps this is why none of the pictures I got of him in his hanbok (in February) are great. Oh, how I love my boy though!

Walking away from Mommy and the camera!

Pulling at the vest saying "no and all done"- classic!

Earlier in the evening we had been having TONS of fun on the bed in the extra bedroom...so I was trying to recreate the fun, but he would have none of it...he just kept crawling to the edge of the bed

and climbing off!

We went downstairs to show Daddy, and Daddy took our picture. Can you tell he wasn't impressed!